[Dixielandjazz] Re: Beethoven/ Jazz 20s

[Bill Haesler]

Dear Fred,
I do not have the Michael H. Kater book, but do have 'La Tristesse de Saint
Louis. Jazz Under The Nazis'. Mike Zwerin. 1985 Beech Tree Books, William
Morrow.)
Never liked it!. Another brief scan yesterday - and I still don't.
Zwerin was a trombone-playing jazz critic for the 'Village Voice'.
In the book he quotes from interviews with a jazz-loving SS officer,
Dietrich Schulz-Koehn. There is a pic with the caption "Here I am in uniform
with a Gypsy, four negroes and a Jew." It has Django, far left, then
Schultz-Koehn next to him. It was taken in front of La Cigale, Paris.
Is this your 'Different Drummers' photograph?
I never did bother with S. Frederick Starr's "Red and Hot" book. Too
esoteric. Too dear and not of much interest to me.
A lot has been  written about the banning of jazz in wartime Germany, yet
the Odeon 'Swing Music' series was probably the best collection of jazz
records ever released in Germany on 78 discs. The series, started in 1937 by
EMI Electrola, could be bought without restriction until the beginning of
WWII in Sept 1939. Even later though special ordering lists.
The interesting thing is that although known as the 'Swing Music' series [a
period of OKOM covering 1935-45], it featured only recordings made between
1927-35.
It was the German equivalent of the English Parlophone Rhythm Style series,
and duplicated most of the same material, all drawn from US Okeh masters.
Lots of Louis, Bix, Boswells, Dorseys, Luis Russell, Casa Loma Orch, Earl
Hines, Hawkins, Lang, Venuti, etc.
Although pressed for German sale up to Sept 1939, the records were available
to 'occupied' countries and neutral states up until early 1944.
The series was reissued in Germany as a 13 LP series in the 50s-60s.
I still have my set, painstaking collected over several years, at a time
when the family was growing up and money was scarce.
I bet Anton Crouch still has his set. All the material is now on CD.
Some years ago, a jazz radio colleague of ours [Anton and me], now gone,
serialised the Odeon recordings and stated, on air, that it showed that
Hitler's Germany wasn't all that bad!
An innocent, but appalling remark, which left us speechless.
Kind regards,
Bill.